Saturday, 22 March 2014

My new cocaine is Threes!

It's 11pm and I'm sliding the number 24 into its numerical clone. The game then alerts me that I've discovered a new character: 48! That must be a good thing. The screen begins to fill with blue '1s' and red '2s' and I strategically shuffle each row around, adding them together to make threes, matching threes to make sixes and so on.

Threes! is the thinking person's answer to the torrent of saccharine matching games of the Candy Crush Saga ilk, at least, that's the vibe that it gives. Minimalist with a dash of cute. Each numbered tile has its own character with a personal biography. Tile 384 is a pirate. They also have names like 'Traven' and 'Threejay', which is nice but does anyone care?

The death knell sounds. The board is full and I have no moves left: game over. I can absolutely beat that measly score. If I'm only scraping a thousand then it's worth another go. I replay it, this time focusing on every intricate movement - I wasn't going to waste any and miss an opportunity.

"Threes is thoroughly addictive. It's Sudoku for the app age"

The aim is to match alike numbers to create bigger numbers, swiping lines of tiles against each 'wall'
of the board, causing resistance and stacking. Each time you do, however, a new tile is added. It could be 1, 2, 3 or less commonly a higher number. One the board is filled and you have no more moves left it's game over and the count-up begins, scoring you for the tiles you have left on the screen.

Threes is thoroughly addictive. It's Sudoku for the app age. My girlfriend hates it because I'm playing it in bed and the light is shining into her face as she's trying to sleep. I feel bad, but instead of turning it off and calling it a night I throw a blanket over my head and continue shuffling tiles.

"I know full well I'll be playing Threes! in the morning"

I do grow tired of it, though. There's only so much of one game mode you can take before calling it a day, and there really is only one mode. In fact, there's not much to Threes! at all. You start the game, you get your score. Rinse and repeat. Your statistics are kept for posterity, but personally I don't care about how many twelves I've made.

However, I know full well I'll be playing Threes! in the morning. Just a few games, but I will need the hit. I can't say it's the most incredible puzzler I've ever played, but it used the mobile format to excellent effect.

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Welcome to Trollish Delver, a blog mostly about roleplaying games. Trollish Delver Games is a publisher of fine tabletop products, including Romance of the Perilous Land, Tequendria, Quill, USR and In Darkest Warrens.